More than a million young people are unemployed, figures out today have shown.

Youth unemployment has passed the politically-sensitive one million mark for the first time since comparable records began in 1992.

The number of 16 to 24 year-olds who were out of work rose by 67,000 to 1.2 million in the three months to September.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the figures were the highest since current records started in 1992 but earlier data, calculated on a different basis, showed youth unemployment last reached these levels in 1986.

Total unemployment rose by 129,000 in the last quarter of the year to 2.62 million with a rate of 8.3 per cent – the worst figure since 1996.

But politicians will be most concerned at the lack of employment among younger generations.

Britain's young people face having their lives "blighted" by unemployment, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg warned.

Mr Clegg said the figures "cannot be ignored" and the country cannot emerge from the economic crisis without tackling the "fundamental problem".

Former Foreign Secretary David Miliband admitted that youth unemployment started to become an issue under the previous Labour government from about 2005, but said the problem had snowballed in the past year.

He told The Times: "You do need extraordinary measures if you are going to eat into long-term unemployment.

"In abnormal times, which you certainly have at the moment with a million young unemployed and 127,000 long-term unemployed, an interview preparation session of an hour is not going to substitute for experience in the workplace.

"When someone is unemployed for more than six months when they are a teenager, the chances they are going to be long-term unemployed as an adult is massively increased, which costs the country."

He added: "It's a time bomb under the financial forecasts of future chancellors of the Exchequer."

The increase in youth unemployment is partly due to a doubling in the number of full – time students looking for part – time work, who are officially recorded as unemployed under international guidelines.

Mr Clegg fears that a generation of teenagers will be "sucked into a vortex" of life without work. "The blight of young people cannot be ignored," he said.

"Tackling this will be a fundamental task if we are to emerge from this economic turmoil with a fairer and more mobile society."

Mr Grayling told ITV's Daybreak the Government was doing everything it could to lower the levels of unemployment, but admitted that the task had been made more difficult by the crisis sweeping through the eurozone.

"Youth unemployment was falling four months ago and was below the level at the General Election but since then we have seen the impact of the European crisis which has left a cloud of uncertainty over many of our most important trading markets."

Mr Grayling said many firms were "reluctant" to hire new staff because of the instability, but hoped the new schemes being rolled out by the Coalition would change this.

The Employment Minister added: "It should always be a goal of the Government to get unemployment down and we will do everything we can to help the unemployed back into the workplace.

"What we are doing is trying to overcome the age-old problem of you can't get a job without experience and you can't get experience without a job."

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, will today announce a £30 million scheme to encourage small firms to provide apprenticeships.

The Bank of England will also downgrade Britain's economic prospects as the full damage caused by the eurozone crisis is laid bare by Sir Mervyn King, the Bank's governor.

Centrepoint, a charity which helps homeless youngsters, said the Government should step up support for young people.

Chief executive Seyi Obakin said: "These latest unemployment figures confirm that young people across the country are bearing the brunt of the jobs crisis. Almost half of the homeless young people we support are not in education, employment or training, showing the risk of the huge financial and social costs of unemployment being borne by the most vulnerable in our society.

"The Government must come up with plans in the autumn statement to tackle this problem, starting with direct Government intervention to help create jobs and apprenticeships specifically for young people. The cost of youth unemployment is too big for us to fail."

Business Secretary Vince Cable will host a summit on apprenticeships today and will announce measures including cash payments to smaller firms to help them take on a young apprentice.

The Government will offer employers with up to 50 staff an incentive payment of £1,500, with the aim of increasing the number of apprentices aged 16 to 24 by up to 20,000.

A spokesman for the Business Secretary said: "Vince is determined that the apprenticeship programme goes from strength to strength. We want more employers to take on an apprentice, especially small companies, and more young people to have the opportunity to realise their potential through completing a high quality apprenticeship."

However, Labour said the scheme was too little too late.

"With youth unemployment at record levels we need urgent action now," a party spokesman said.

"These small measures the Government is announcing suggest this out of touch Government does not understand the scale of the jobs crisis we face and the fact that one in five young people are looking for work."

An £80 million fund offering financial help and specialist mentoring to people who have been unemployed for more than six months and want to start their own business will be launched by Mr Grayling today.

Working Links, which delivers programmes to help get people back to work, urged the Government to consider new ways to tackle youth unemployment.

Commercial manager Matthew Freeman said: "Levels of youth unemployment have reached crisis point. With over a million young people out of work, we risk creating a lost generation of young Britons.

"Expanding the number of apprenticeships will undoubtedly help young people to find lasting work, but with such a backlog of unemployed young people, the Government must do even more.

"There are simply not enough apprenticeships available to tackle the huge queues of jobless young people."